LAWRENCE — The Lawrenceville Main Street organization and an artists group it formerly oversaw are at odds over $20,000 that remained in the group’s account after it was dissolved late last year.

The dispute follows the nonprofit’s move last year to shut down the Artists Network, which was running a gallery and arts classes in Lawrenceville Main Street’s building at Main Street and Gordon Avenue.

The former director of the Artists Network, Michelle Rosenthal, said the decision to eject the group came suddenly, making it difficult for the group to reorganize and continue.

“There was no time, no leadership and no effort to get it done, so we decided to dissolve,” Rosenthal said. “We had approximately $20,000 in a combination checking and savings account,” which Main Street’s treasurers had helped open.

The funds were the remainder of three years of membership dues, donations and other revenue, she said. The group decided to donate the money to HomeFront ArtSpace, which provides artistic opportunities for people who are homeless or impoverished, but found funds were no longer in the account.

Howard Nelson, the board president of Lawrenceville Main Street, defended the money transfer, saying the funds are being audited to make sure they were handled properly. He said nonprofits are obliged to audit such accounts.

“Regardless of what someone might say, Lawrenceville Main Street retains the exclusive right to do these things,” Nelson said yesterday. “The board has the fiduciary duty to ensure there is integrity in their accounts. It’s our reputation and our liability on the line.
We are doing it exactly by the book and exactly the right way.”

Lawrenceville Main Street oversaw the group, which used the organization’s tax ID and nonprofit designation. But the Artists Network paid rent and insurance costs through membership dues and arts sales.

Rosenthal said her group’s members were was never alerted that the money would be transferred out of the account and Main Street officials never explained why the money was moved.

“I think they were concerned about possibly what would happen with the money and how it was accumulated,” she said. “We were just asking them to tell us why, and what were you concerned about.”

The board did not respond and was unwilling to participate in mediation, she said.

The Artists Network was told in October that it could no longer be part of Lawrenceville Main Street and would have to find another building. Nelson said the group’s financial model was unsustainable, and the board had been talking with its members for 16 months about having it break off into a separate organization with its own tax ID.

“We have shut down unprofitable initiatives before,” he said. “We had a farmers market that was running at a loss for many years and we determined it was just not in the community’s interest to fund something that was causing such a loss, so we shut it down.”

“The artists network was no different in that decision. It was running for three years. We did everything we could do to help,” he said.

Rosenthal said the group’s dissolution is in the past now, but the members still want some information about the leftover funds. Nelson said his organization has avoid discussing the issue to avoid getting into arguments, but said the status of the money will be clear in the coming weeks, once the audit is complete.